How to star and rate tasks by importance
Click a star on a task in Task List by Zaweba to rate it from 1 to 5 and click again to clear it. Four and five star tasks gather in the Starred view.
Click a star on the task. In Task List by Zaweba every task can carry from 1 to 5 stars; click the star that matches how much the task matters, and click again to clear it. Tasks with four or five stars are gathered in the Starred smart view, from every list at once.
Stars give you a way to say a task is important that has nothing to do with when it is due.
Setting stars
Each task row shows its stars. Click the first star for one, the fifth for five. Changing your mind is just as quick: click a different star, or click the same one again to clear it.
If you add tasks with quick add, type exclamation marks with the task: !!! gives it stars as it goes in. Together with a date, a #tag and an @List in the same line, a single sentence can file a task completely.
What the stars mean
There is no fixed rule, and that is deliberate. A simple scheme works best. One way is to keep five stars for things with real consequences if missed, four for things that matter this week, and three or fewer for useful but optional jobs. Another is to keep stars for personal priorities only, and let due dates handle urgency. Choose one and stick to it, so a glance means the same thing each day.
Using the Starred view
Starred gathers four and five star tasks from every list. It is the answer to the question of what matters most, regardless of where a task is filed. Because smart views are built on the fly, a starred task appears in Starred and in its own list at once, never copied. Tick it in either and it is done everywhere.
Many people check Starred after Today. Today shows what is due; Starred shows what is important but may not have a date. Between them, nothing big hides.
Sorting by stars
Inside any list you can sort by stars to bring the highest-rated tasks to the top. Your own order is kept underneath; choose Back to my order to return to it. That makes it easy to glance at priorities without rearranging anything.
Stars, importance and tags
Task List has three ways of marking things, each at a different level. Lists have an importance, from Critical to Someday, which orders the sidebar. Tasks have stars for their own weight. Tags, with colours from a 14-colour palette or any hex colour, group tasks across lists by theme, such as a project or a person. Use each for its own job and the app stays clear.
Keeping stars meaningful
If every task has five stars, none of them stands out. Review the Starred view now and then and lower the ones that have settled. A short Starred list is a useful list. Once a week, open Starred and ask of each task whether it still deserves its stars. Lower the ones that have faded, finish the ones that are close, and add stars to anything new that really matters.
Task List by Zaweba keeps stars simple on purpose: a click to set, a click to clear, and one view to gather the best of them. Used with a light touch, they turn a long list into a short one you can act on.
